[Fic] Part of Your World
Mar. 24th, 2021 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chirurgiqueTitle: Part of Your World
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Relationship: Skuld/Strelitzia
Rating: PG
Content notes: fantasy violence
Words: 1,807
Summary: As her party members flake on her more and more frequently, Skuld has been spending a lot of time looking for some company. Luckily, there might be a kindred spirit nearby who’s in a similar boat. After all, why else would Strelitzia be hanging around as if she wants to talk?
The rocks that broke the waves on the Daybreak Town beach were covered with salt. Layers and layers of meandering white lines lay flat against the craggy surfaces like sheets of an aurora. Skuld traced the patterns with her fingertips as she waited, perched.
It would have been more comfortable to sit in one of the chairs on the beach, or on the steps of the lighthouse, or even on the sand itself. The rocks that formed the beach’s natural bulkhead weren’t exactly a sustainable resting place. But that was kind of the point. Skuld hadn’t expected to be sitting here so long, and when her party members did finally arrive, she wanted to look it.
She was getting tired and impatient. But at least she wasn’t the only one loitering on the beach.
She had seen that girl around a lot, with the long pigtails and the shrinking violet shoulders, waiting around by herself in all sorts of places. Right now she was hanging back conspicuously by the copse of palm trees on the other side of the lighthouse stairs. The ferryboat had come and gone and come again, so she definitely wasn’t on her way to leave.
Well, there was nothing for it.
“Hey there!” It took a special kind of effort to keep a confident, even stride across loose dry sand. She waved cheerfully to draw attention from the slipshod crunching of her boots. The waiting girl looked up in alarm as if she had been pulled from deep thought.
“If you’re here to Heartless hunt, I’ve heard that the ones people have been seeing down-beach are a little much for a non-partied wielder. Wanna team up? I’m Skuld, by the way.” She extended her hand with what she hoped was a reassuring smile.
“Oh! Uh...” The girl grabbed a pigtail in each hand and knocked her fists together, seemingly on reflex, then took a second to think through the order of operations before unballing a hand to shake Skuld’s. “I’m Strelitzia! But, um...” The pigtail Strelitzia had let go for the handshake had caught on her sleeve rather than fall back into place, and she focused on fixing it. “I’m actually not unpartied...”
“O-oh—”
“M-my party actually did a mission here earlier... I was just lagging behind, because, um, I had some stuff to think about, so I thought I’d might as well stay and think about it on the beach... since the breeze is nice...”
Skuld was so embarrassed. Not only to have misread the situation, but to have thought she was doing this girl some sort of charity by approaching her just because she seemed awkward.
“Ahaha, I’m sorry for assuming!” She grinned as affably as possible, doing everything she could to radiate the energy of a friendly, self-assured person who had neither meant nor taken offence.
“A-ah! But, uh...” Strelitzia suddenly let her pigtail go, in favour of hoverhanding the air in front of her. “I could still join you for a mission if you’d like! Um, I mean, who doesn’t need more Lux, right?”
She laughed in a high trilling way that made Skuld think that Strelitzia definitely didn’t need more Lux.
But Skuld did, and she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. She stepped back and nodded, flashing another smile.
“Let’s get to work!”
***
The beach had definitely seen its fair share of action that day, and it had the pockmarks to prove it; deep footprints and huge divots from since-decided battles made it hard to make a casual trajectory over the sand. Skuld mostly kept to the waterline, scanning the horizon judiciously in every direction.
Strelitzia picked her way through carefully, making an obvious show of checking near vegetation and under chairs, clearly trying to have her earnest participation be as visible as possible. She flitted around like a bird, pigtails and ruffles disarranged every time she bent to look under a left-behind umbrella or suspicious bush. Skuld felt the onset of a despairing kind of dawning certainty. If there were any Heartless in the places Strelitzia was checking, they would have shown themselves well before she got in examination range.
Skuld’s chest tightened with some sort of indecipherable unpleasant emotion. Was it shame at being so obviously pitied? Was she touched that this near-stranger would go so far to help? And would it wound her pride less to ride it out or call it off?
Eventually, her bias towards practicality won out. She turned to her collaborator, still diligently examining an unremarkable piece of driftwood, and politely began, “So, Strelitzia.”
“Yes?” Strelitzia stood straight up from crouching, the streamers of her hair and clothing swinging in her wake. It was hard to believe that such an artless movement could come off so elegantly.
“When you and your party were here before, you totally cleaned out the beach, didn’t you.”
“N-no!” She clasped her hands in front of her plaintively. “I mean, we couldn’t have... I’m sure we missed...”
Skuld pressed her lips together tightly and suppressed a sigh. Annoyance and endearment were raging within her. “Listen... I really appreciate you offering to help me out here. But if there’s nothing left to do, then there’s really—”
She was cut off by a thunderous, watery suction sound from the expanse of ocean behind her. Strelitzia’s eyes went wide, and Skuld whipped around. Somehow, while she had been distracted by her own petty concerns, the water had darkened, a fierce riptide pulling seafoam and glassy waves together into a massive whirlpool. From its centre, an enormous snakelike head crested, the heavy coils of a Leviathan Heartless soaring ominously into the sky.
Both girls summoned their Keyblades.
“Buffs?! Buffs!” Contrary to her stammering manner, Strelitzia wasted no time in jabbing her weapon skyward. Skuld felt the warmth of power flow through her.
The Leviathan roared and sent out a volley of bubbles, apparently in some sort of countermeasure to Strelitzia’s spell. The projectiles soared over Skuld’s head too fast for her to do anything but watch the counter home in on Strelitzia. She shrugged off the damage like it wasn’t worth mentioning.
Strelitzia met Skuld’s surprised stare. “Careful, I think this thing has a magic reflection barrier.”
Skuld swallowed and nodded. This wasn’t the time to be caught flatfooted. “Guess we’ll just have to deal with it the old fashioned way, then.” She hefted Starlight’s weight against her palm, and grinned.
Strelitzia smiled back shyly, a little flushed as the wind of her next support move began to swirl around her. Skuld turned back quickly, and tried to will her own face to behave as she launched herself towards her opponent. If her cheeks had to burn, then at least it could be out of exertion.
***
“... And I think that’s the last of it.” Skuld used her Keyblade to direct the stream of Lux into the open pouch held out expectantly by Strelitzia’s Chirithy.
“Got it!” The Chirithy snapped the pouch closed and did a cheerful twirl in celebration.
“Thanks, Chirithy,” murmured Strelitzia.
“I can’t remember the last time this pouch was so heavy! You two really went all out, huh? What a good team!”
“Thanks, Chirithy,” said Strelitzia again, through what Skuld could have sworn were gritted teeth.
Chirithy directed its inscrutable stuffed animal gaze back and forth between Skuld and Strelitzia, then performed a little hop as if in sudden realization.
“I’ll give you two some alone time. Call me if you need me!” It vanished in the customary puff of smoke.
What was that about? But Skuld supposed Chirithies always had a tendency to be evasive. Strelitzia, for her part, didn’t seem perturbed. Face still red from the earlier battle, she tucked her hair behind her ear and turned back to Skuld. Or maybe she hadn’t turned to face Skuld, but the sea — Skuld could feel the warmth of the setting sun on her back, so she was sure the view must be spectacular.
“Um, thank you so much for teaming up with me today.” Strelitzia kept her gaze down.
Skuld turned to see what she was looking at. The sun was shimmering off the expanse of the newly calm ocean as it set, unfurling a blanket of diamonds. It was beautiful, she could see now why Strelitzia looked so awed.
“Hey, I should be thanking you! ...And apologizing.” Skuld paused and tried to sort out her chagrin. “I’m sorry I spoke so soon about there not being any Heartless left. We were lucky that there was still such a big prize for the taking.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder, laughing sheepishly. “Or maybe unlucky, since we could have saved ourselves the work and the danger. So maybe I should apologize again?”
“N-not at all!” Strelitzia had stepped forward to stand even with Skuld. She glanced up quickly to meet Skuld’s eye, then looked back to the sparkling sea. “Uh, I’m glad I got to see you fight today after all. You were really cool.”
Skuld snorted. “You were no slouch yourself!” She struggled to convey how cowed she’d been by Strelitzia’s competence while still keeping it casual. “Way stronger than lots of other kids I’ve fought with. I’d take the chance to have you at my side any day, haha.”
“I... I’d love to team up with you again!” Strelitzia grabbed Skuld’s hand with both of hers, eyes shining. “I mean, if you ever need it. Like if your party members aren’t available again some other time.”
At least I didn’t give off the impression that I’m a friendless loser. Skuld smiled, and felt the grip of self-consciousness in the pit of her stomach dissolve. “That sounds great.”
“Good! Um, then, you can have your Chirithy call mine anytime, okay? A-anytime!” Strelitzia dropped Skuld’s hand, nodded, and apparently turned to go. Then she turned back, turned once more, took a few steps away and returned again. She seemed to be trying to figure out how to leave. Skuld laughed warmly and raised her hand to wave.
Strelitzia pulled on both pigtails, spun around in a full circle, and abruptly stopped right in front of Skuld, facing away from her. Then, she suddenly did an about-face, kissed Skuld lightly on the cheek, and sprinted halfway down the beach.
“Call me!!” she yelled before turning away again, hustling all the way up to the lighthouse steps and through the door.
Skuld slowly moved her hand from its frozen waving position to touch her freshly ignited cheek. She had been ditched by her party, accidentally condescended to someone she had wanted to help, been pitied by a stranger, eaten humble pie, and done nothing but embarrass herself that day. But at least she had gotten a girl’s number.
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Relationship: Skuld/Strelitzia
Rating: PG
Content notes: fantasy violence
Words: 1,807
Summary: As her party members flake on her more and more frequently, Skuld has been spending a lot of time looking for some company. Luckily, there might be a kindred spirit nearby who’s in a similar boat. After all, why else would Strelitzia be hanging around as if she wants to talk?
The rocks that broke the waves on the Daybreak Town beach were covered with salt. Layers and layers of meandering white lines lay flat against the craggy surfaces like sheets of an aurora. Skuld traced the patterns with her fingertips as she waited, perched.
It would have been more comfortable to sit in one of the chairs on the beach, or on the steps of the lighthouse, or even on the sand itself. The rocks that formed the beach’s natural bulkhead weren’t exactly a sustainable resting place. But that was kind of the point. Skuld hadn’t expected to be sitting here so long, and when her party members did finally arrive, she wanted to look it.
She was getting tired and impatient. But at least she wasn’t the only one loitering on the beach.
She had seen that girl around a lot, with the long pigtails and the shrinking violet shoulders, waiting around by herself in all sorts of places. Right now she was hanging back conspicuously by the copse of palm trees on the other side of the lighthouse stairs. The ferryboat had come and gone and come again, so she definitely wasn’t on her way to leave.
Well, there was nothing for it.
“Hey there!” It took a special kind of effort to keep a confident, even stride across loose dry sand. She waved cheerfully to draw attention from the slipshod crunching of her boots. The waiting girl looked up in alarm as if she had been pulled from deep thought.
“If you’re here to Heartless hunt, I’ve heard that the ones people have been seeing down-beach are a little much for a non-partied wielder. Wanna team up? I’m Skuld, by the way.” She extended her hand with what she hoped was a reassuring smile.
“Oh! Uh...” The girl grabbed a pigtail in each hand and knocked her fists together, seemingly on reflex, then took a second to think through the order of operations before unballing a hand to shake Skuld’s. “I’m Strelitzia! But, um...” The pigtail Strelitzia had let go for the handshake had caught on her sleeve rather than fall back into place, and she focused on fixing it. “I’m actually not unpartied...”
“O-oh—”
“M-my party actually did a mission here earlier... I was just lagging behind, because, um, I had some stuff to think about, so I thought I’d might as well stay and think about it on the beach... since the breeze is nice...”
Skuld was so embarrassed. Not only to have misread the situation, but to have thought she was doing this girl some sort of charity by approaching her just because she seemed awkward.
“Ahaha, I’m sorry for assuming!” She grinned as affably as possible, doing everything she could to radiate the energy of a friendly, self-assured person who had neither meant nor taken offence.
“A-ah! But, uh...” Strelitzia suddenly let her pigtail go, in favour of hoverhanding the air in front of her. “I could still join you for a mission if you’d like! Um, I mean, who doesn’t need more Lux, right?”
She laughed in a high trilling way that made Skuld think that Strelitzia definitely didn’t need more Lux.
But Skuld did, and she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. She stepped back and nodded, flashing another smile.
“Let’s get to work!”
***
The beach had definitely seen its fair share of action that day, and it had the pockmarks to prove it; deep footprints and huge divots from since-decided battles made it hard to make a casual trajectory over the sand. Skuld mostly kept to the waterline, scanning the horizon judiciously in every direction.
Strelitzia picked her way through carefully, making an obvious show of checking near vegetation and under chairs, clearly trying to have her earnest participation be as visible as possible. She flitted around like a bird, pigtails and ruffles disarranged every time she bent to look under a left-behind umbrella or suspicious bush. Skuld felt the onset of a despairing kind of dawning certainty. If there were any Heartless in the places Strelitzia was checking, they would have shown themselves well before she got in examination range.
Skuld’s chest tightened with some sort of indecipherable unpleasant emotion. Was it shame at being so obviously pitied? Was she touched that this near-stranger would go so far to help? And would it wound her pride less to ride it out or call it off?
Eventually, her bias towards practicality won out. She turned to her collaborator, still diligently examining an unremarkable piece of driftwood, and politely began, “So, Strelitzia.”
“Yes?” Strelitzia stood straight up from crouching, the streamers of her hair and clothing swinging in her wake. It was hard to believe that such an artless movement could come off so elegantly.
“When you and your party were here before, you totally cleaned out the beach, didn’t you.”
“N-no!” She clasped her hands in front of her plaintively. “I mean, we couldn’t have... I’m sure we missed...”
Skuld pressed her lips together tightly and suppressed a sigh. Annoyance and endearment were raging within her. “Listen... I really appreciate you offering to help me out here. But if there’s nothing left to do, then there’s really—”
She was cut off by a thunderous, watery suction sound from the expanse of ocean behind her. Strelitzia’s eyes went wide, and Skuld whipped around. Somehow, while she had been distracted by her own petty concerns, the water had darkened, a fierce riptide pulling seafoam and glassy waves together into a massive whirlpool. From its centre, an enormous snakelike head crested, the heavy coils of a Leviathan Heartless soaring ominously into the sky.
Both girls summoned their Keyblades.
“Buffs?! Buffs!” Contrary to her stammering manner, Strelitzia wasted no time in jabbing her weapon skyward. Skuld felt the warmth of power flow through her.
The Leviathan roared and sent out a volley of bubbles, apparently in some sort of countermeasure to Strelitzia’s spell. The projectiles soared over Skuld’s head too fast for her to do anything but watch the counter home in on Strelitzia. She shrugged off the damage like it wasn’t worth mentioning.
Strelitzia met Skuld’s surprised stare. “Careful, I think this thing has a magic reflection barrier.”
Skuld swallowed and nodded. This wasn’t the time to be caught flatfooted. “Guess we’ll just have to deal with it the old fashioned way, then.” She hefted Starlight’s weight against her palm, and grinned.
Strelitzia smiled back shyly, a little flushed as the wind of her next support move began to swirl around her. Skuld turned back quickly, and tried to will her own face to behave as she launched herself towards her opponent. If her cheeks had to burn, then at least it could be out of exertion.
***
“... And I think that’s the last of it.” Skuld used her Keyblade to direct the stream of Lux into the open pouch held out expectantly by Strelitzia’s Chirithy.
“Got it!” The Chirithy snapped the pouch closed and did a cheerful twirl in celebration.
“Thanks, Chirithy,” murmured Strelitzia.
“I can’t remember the last time this pouch was so heavy! You two really went all out, huh? What a good team!”
“Thanks, Chirithy,” said Strelitzia again, through what Skuld could have sworn were gritted teeth.
Chirithy directed its inscrutable stuffed animal gaze back and forth between Skuld and Strelitzia, then performed a little hop as if in sudden realization.
“I’ll give you two some alone time. Call me if you need me!” It vanished in the customary puff of smoke.
What was that about? But Skuld supposed Chirithies always had a tendency to be evasive. Strelitzia, for her part, didn’t seem perturbed. Face still red from the earlier battle, she tucked her hair behind her ear and turned back to Skuld. Or maybe she hadn’t turned to face Skuld, but the sea — Skuld could feel the warmth of the setting sun on her back, so she was sure the view must be spectacular.
“Um, thank you so much for teaming up with me today.” Strelitzia kept her gaze down.
Skuld turned to see what she was looking at. The sun was shimmering off the expanse of the newly calm ocean as it set, unfurling a blanket of diamonds. It was beautiful, she could see now why Strelitzia looked so awed.
“Hey, I should be thanking you! ...And apologizing.” Skuld paused and tried to sort out her chagrin. “I’m sorry I spoke so soon about there not being any Heartless left. We were lucky that there was still such a big prize for the taking.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder, laughing sheepishly. “Or maybe unlucky, since we could have saved ourselves the work and the danger. So maybe I should apologize again?”
“N-not at all!” Strelitzia had stepped forward to stand even with Skuld. She glanced up quickly to meet Skuld’s eye, then looked back to the sparkling sea. “Uh, I’m glad I got to see you fight today after all. You were really cool.”
Skuld snorted. “You were no slouch yourself!” She struggled to convey how cowed she’d been by Strelitzia’s competence while still keeping it casual. “Way stronger than lots of other kids I’ve fought with. I’d take the chance to have you at my side any day, haha.”
“I... I’d love to team up with you again!” Strelitzia grabbed Skuld’s hand with both of hers, eyes shining. “I mean, if you ever need it. Like if your party members aren’t available again some other time.”
At least I didn’t give off the impression that I’m a friendless loser. Skuld smiled, and felt the grip of self-consciousness in the pit of her stomach dissolve. “That sounds great.”
“Good! Um, then, you can have your Chirithy call mine anytime, okay? A-anytime!” Strelitzia dropped Skuld’s hand, nodded, and apparently turned to go. Then she turned back, turned once more, took a few steps away and returned again. She seemed to be trying to figure out how to leave. Skuld laughed warmly and raised her hand to wave.
Strelitzia pulled on both pigtails, spun around in a full circle, and abruptly stopped right in front of Skuld, facing away from her. Then, she suddenly did an about-face, kissed Skuld lightly on the cheek, and sprinted halfway down the beach.
“Call me!!” she yelled before turning away again, hustling all the way up to the lighthouse steps and through the door.
Skuld slowly moved her hand from its frozen waving position to touch her freshly ignited cheek. She had been ditched by her party, accidentally condescended to someone she had wanted to help, been pitied by a stranger, eaten humble pie, and done nothing but embarrass herself that day. But at least she had gotten a girl’s number.
